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…when it comes to dragging fronds to the compost heap! 😅 It’s not heavy, just awkward. Which are your largest fronds? Heaviest? Most awkward to manage?

Parajubaea sunkha

I was out in the garden today checking on things and noticed my Lanonia dasyantha is starting to flower! Has anyone in socal had any luck getting viable seed off of one?

Roystonea regia; they can weigh up to 70 pounds when they fall. Like 35 feet long including shaft-thingie.

These little guys are awesome. Mine should be getting there soon

Chrysalidocarpus baronii dropped a frond and showed off its base today.

Another Chamaerops.

Archontophoenix alexandrae (with green cunninghamiana behind)

Hi I’m new to this forum. I live in Ålesund in the western coast of Norway. Many of you probably think of polar bears, when you think of Norway. My town actually has the warmest winter climate of any Scandinavian city, and the city itself is in US hardiness zone 9a, here at 62 degrees north. My location is between 8B/9A, most years 8B, but with slightly warmer summers than in the city. The record cold the last 30 years was -10 degrees celsius, in 2010. The record high 34,4 celsius (little inland in the city). Winter days average at about 5-6 degrees with most nights above freezing. This winter had a min of -6/7 and high of 16 degrees celsius. Summer days highs average about 19 degrees, With normal range between 15-25 degrees. The huggets this far this year is 30,6 in my garden, which is unormal and a record high for the month of May. This have made several palm entusiasts try different exotics and Trachycarpus can be cultivated without protection here. Also European fan palms, but they May struggle in harsh winters. My Chamaerops has been unprotected for 3 winters. of us have also gotten us a Jubaea chilensis, which is very difficult to get here in Norway. Anyway, here are some pictures from my garden.

I documented the creation of our Hilo garden in detail here on PalmTalk so I wanted to share that the property is for sale. If you or someone you know has been wanting to make the move to Hawaii, this could be your chance 🤙🏻 This past weekend I was honored to host the Hawaii Island Palm Society at the garden and enjoyed touring 80+ people through it over a 6 hour period! I truly hope that we can find a buyer that will cherish the garden. You can view the listing here and below are some photos from the listing that show some of the palms (gotta keep this thread relevant to discussing palms 😀) Our family is staying on the Big Island and moving about 12 miles north of Hilo to our new home / garden which is being documented here.

I have moved mine a few times with no issues. I use seaweed extract. It was a small seeding, however. Santa Ana, CA

Coccothrinax borhidiana aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Well you had a longer running time than me. Diagnosed with MS in my early 30's that put me in a wheelchair not long after, I used to get someone to dig all the holes for planting palms. Now I am in a new house designed for wheelchair occupancy, I get on my knees and dig my own holes with a little camping spade. Then cancer surgery about 5 years (I think) ago., then a double mastectomy last year. Just when I thought it was as bad as it gets, my spine decided to imitate a roller coaster so now I can't lift anything heavier than an overfed chihuahua. Now I move plants and potting mix etc in a little cart attached to my chair with cable ties. Now I am at the time of life when I should be browsing the catalogues for comfortable coffins and burial plots with a nice view, the cost of living crisis has forced me to go back to work just to survive. On the plus side, I like my little house and the pretty things in it. The Poochies, Pussies, Parrots, Palms and Potted Plants give me a reason to get up in the mornings and reward my nurturing efforts threefold. Shingles is on my list of terrors, along with a stroke or early onset dementia. I too had the vaccination and felt safe until 20 minutes ago, ya bum, however I survived the pandemic without catching Covid so hopefully I will dodge shingles as skillfully as I am dodging the coffin. Peachy

Who am I? Seed bought from RPS as C parvifrons, but clearly not...quite plumose, maybe vogelianum? I think others have had this dilemma but I don’t recall the consensus.

Walking around the neighborhood and this guy jumped out, never seen him before.. variegated Sabal

Palmtalker293847, Welcome to the forum, Unfortunately, imo, i don't think bracing it will save it. ..Just doesn't seem to be enough root mass. Might be better to remove ( ..Maybe save the trunk and have it carved into a Tiki ) and start over. Being a Queen ( ..looks like one in the picture, ) i might replace w/ a Mule ( Cross between a Queen and a Pindo Palm ) which handle our heat much better than Queens.

awesome specimen!! just curious, did you plant the palm deep enough to avoid it blowing over (not uncommon when young)? I planted one some years ago but had issues with two hurricanes causing it to lean. then I decided to let the lean happen, so I staked the palm in place and let it grow.

Bismarckia Nobilis is the biggest that will be in my garden. -dale

Generally I give them at least a couple of months in the ground, so you're talking September at the earliest. Depending on your climate this is probably getting near the end of fertilization before winter and you want them to slow down before real cold comes, if you get any. I've been using Espoma Organic Biotone starter when I plant, because all my gardens are new and likely don't have the underground microbial/fungal life that an established garden would. I have seen a difference between the plants I've used it on, and the ones I haven't.

Hey Jim, late reply but here's my little fella looking pretty happy on a midwinter morning at 43 degrees south.

Leucothrinax morrisii. (also beginning to flower at this size) aztropic Mesa, Arizona

I'm 81 now and was in great shape until March when I came down w/shngles. Yea I got the shots and still got it. Then as that was clearing up something swelled up below and to the right of my belly botton. After an Ultra Sound, a CT scan and a MRI my Dr's said they don't know what it is but it's not a hernia or any cancer. Pain is gone now but still swollen enough that bending over to put on socks or shoes is uncomfortable. As they say getting old is a bitch but it beats the alternative. LOL Anyway back to palms....I can finally use my weed wacker for the first time in 3 1/2 month. Spent about 3 hours w/a lunch break clearing the "back 40" which is a triangle of land about maybe 2000 sq feet... Some day I'm gonna measure it. LOL. It's the are labled Plumeria Patch. None there now but 40 years ago I was selling the flowers until I realized it was a twice a day job 7 days a week so I quit doing that. That long straight boundary is 700' long. Oh yea it' 2 acres. Here are two photo's before and after. I'll add some of the palms up there. Not to many planted way back there. This is in the lower portion of the "patch" looking at the long straight white line.

I have a compost pile and it decays way too slowly to be much use. The two green carts are good, and, you can really really stuff them. Which I'm starting to have to do. Again. Winter, when growth is slower, isn't so bad.

Many of us have to use the green waste containers. All the fronds that fall off or I have to prune off palms need to be cut into segments and shoved into the two recycle bins I have. No room in the garden for a compost heap being on a 1/4 acre property. Luckily the two 100 gallon bins I have are enough.

One of my large Bizzie leaves once slapped me across the faces and gave me a split lip. Not a palm to mess with.

Two of the three were definitely closer to the foundation than is ideal in most circumstances. I was in a zone 7 climate and I made the choice to put them close to the south wall for shelter. The one by the gas meter was a solid 4 feet from the house. I wouldn't have been so bold to dig next to the meter, except that I had all of my utility lines marked at the time of planting. We also built the house, so I was pretty confident about where I could dig. It didn't hurt that it was planted at a small size either, so I probably only had to dig 12 inches or less anyway. A lot of good it all did anyway, since I experienced below 0F temps six out of eight winters in that house. I was covering and wrapping my trachycarpus, but I didn't use any supplemental heat. So, none of them ever got large enough to cause problems from being so close to the house.

I will probably take your advice on this one. I really want to see this palm healthy again, so I will probably leave it where it is. I just wish it would start growing even a little bit. As long as it isn't declining though, I have hope it will acclimate eventually. Sorry about your rabbit damaged trachycarpus. Princeps and latisectus would be a shame to lose to pests. I hope they settle in and make nice additions to your yard one day. I still want to have a double or triple planting of trachycarpus with my takil some day. I don't know if I will ever get my hands on any more takils, so I may end up buying a princeps, waggie, or another trachycarpus that I like to fill the space eventually.

They often have sharp edges on the petioles; really sharp like a knife blade sometimes.

I wouldn't touch it. Transplanting will induce more stress. If it were me I would keep in the pot until next March, in a location that does not get afternoon sun. Water frequently and fertilize occasionally. I have two Trachycarpus that I dug up brought with me to Texas, but were massacred by rabbits a couple weeks before I left. One had half a spear (princeps) and the other had one beat up frond (latisectus). I've kept them in the pots and they both are adding to their frond count. Princeps up to 3.5 and Latisectus up to 7. Princeps can handle the full sun, but Latisectus is starting to burn these last couple of weeks so I moved it. Both are watered almost daily. I've only fertilized once about a month ago after I felt they were going in the right direction.

Being that small and with this hot weather I'd wait till mid Sept

I haven't moved one but I strongly urge you to use the trenching method, i.e., take a couple/several months to dig a 3' diameter square, one side at a time 2-3' deep with a wait of 3-4 weeks between sides so roots can heal. When you are ready to move it, prepare the planting site, undercut the transplant to get the largest rootball possible, move and plant it ASAP. Don't wrap the rootball in burlap and let it sit around.

I got my C ‘parvifroms’ from a 2018 RPS seed batch well after the earlier ones were known to have turned out to be something different. I contacted RPS at they were very confident of the ID of the palms seed had been collected from. It’s now obvious that my palms are also not parvifrons but likely vogelianum. I still find it all a bit strange given how distinctive parvifrons is that this could continue to occur for over a decade especially after the issue had been raised repeatedly. My 2 C ‘parvifrons’ Some other Ceroxylon sp just to add to the thread: C quindiuense C parvum C echinulatum C alpinum (I think. I had this labelled as ventricosum for years but looking like alpinum now which I did have seed of at the same time)

I have plenty of them here in FL and can mail them to you in California for postage only. Maybe I can just put a stamp and address label on the coconut and mail it like that?

Livistona mariae (leaf bases are pure wood!), Phoenix porphyrocarpa (thick petiole, thick rachis, thick spines).

While you're thinking about it, here's a couple of it's cousins. C alpinum

There is a place called Southern Paradise that currently has the best selection of Palms in Corpus. I have only lived here a few years, was it around when you lived here? Southern Paradise Palm and Tree Sales 3920 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78415

Caryota Obtusa . I have to cut into several smaller chunks to fit them into the brown can . I move my cars out of the driveway and lay them down , then proceed to cut, cut , and more cutting. They are , by far , the largest fronds in my yard. Harry

Parajubaea torallyi are often over twenty feet long and their petioles are like hardwood which makes them more difficult to prune than my other palms especially when brown which is the only time I prune them.

@Brian I think your cycad is a Whitelockii, Ituriensis, or Equatorialis. I had an unidentified large green one a few years ago, and I was told that a key feature of Laurentianus is the sort of "corkscrew" shape to the new flush. Laurentianus always has the new leaflets cross the center axis. See the below picture with the shape of the new leaf circled: An earlier picture shows the odd corkscrew too: The straight "V" shape is typical for the Whitelockii group.

IMG_8319.HEIC

Copernicia cowellii aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Coccothrinax borhidiana hybrid aztropic Mesa,Arizona

Not especially uncommon to see these flower young, at least in my experience. Maybe others have differing assessments. Looks great.

Archontophoenix Purpurea hybrid.

Dypsis Basilonga Cocothrinax Brasilensis Cocothrinax Miraguama Ceroxylon Echinulatum Serenoa repens Lytocaryum Hoehnei Archontophoenix Maxima

two winters later, heating roots with cables during cool january nights, both are doing fine.. starting to speed up and showing some nice bismarckia colour ☀️

I was in that store last week too while down there visiting my parents. I typically check out different big box stores early in the morning while the rest of my family is still in zombie/pre-caffeinated state. I was in several Lowe's between the villages and just south of Orlando. I saw a few Lantana which I've seen down there before but this was the first year I saw these Schizophylla and Licuala Grandis which were the same size but I believe maybe $20ish more. I also saw these 13gal Mules which I've never seen for sale in this size at a big box in TX.

I have a Ficus aurea I bought about 15 years ago at a native plant nursery in Ft. Myers, Florida. However, my tree hasn't grown all that big since then. It's maybe 12 feet high and not very spreading. On the other hand, I have a Ficus altissima 'variegata' that is quite large. I haven't seen a bigger one in my county in all my travels. I think I have about 13-14 species of ficus and none compares in growth speed and size as my altissima. On the other hand, I've made cuttings from my mother tree altissima, and none of the cuttings (many at least 15 years old) have grown with the size and spread as my mother altissima. Go figure. BTW, I have a progeny from the famous Thomas Edison banyan (Ficus benghalensis) that a friend gave me about three years ago. It was only about 12" high. It hasn't been a super fast grower. Today it stands about 8 feet high overall.